Bringing your own oil
Discussion
If it's anything like over here, it's not just the cost of the oil, the cost of disposal of old oil is getting silly, and registered garages and workshops now have to do this by the book.
We used to have a heater converted to run on old oil. Now we have to have a contract to have oil collected and disposed of - and we get fined if there's too big a difference between the total volume of oil we purchase and the volume we have collected.
Progress eh?
We used to have a heater converted to run on old oil. Now we have to have a contract to have oil collected and disposed of - and we get fined if there's too big a difference between the total volume of oil we purchase and the volume we have collected.
Progress eh?
mhurley said:
The thing is I can buy 10 litres of Mobil 10w 60 on Ebay for £79, so what on earth they buy it for and then charge £190, God knows
As they say, my wallet feels your pain.
However, when we go to a restaurant and order a bottle of wine, do we only expect to pay the supermarket bottle price?
Not my job to defend AM dealer parts and labour prices, but spending millions to have premises which meet AML standards, then pay to finance millions of pounds worth of stock, some of which remain unsold for months, must be a continual worry. These are of course, only two of a main dealers many costs. Quite a business risk, and not always succesful.
It has been mentioned occasionally on here, that sometimes customers can take their own oil, but perhaps the missing £100 then reappears somewhere else on the invioce.
I think the only choice we might have (when out of warranty), is to consider an independent for our servicing.
thebraketester said:
Sell the car and get a Toyota Aygo..... its only £145 for the service in total.
Haha, and less than £40 in parts. Ours is almost 10 years old, had it from new, 50k miles and only has needed a rear brake cylinder sorting apart from usual consumables. Talk about a contrast, or complementary, in all respects. thebraketester said:
Sell the car and get a Toyota Aygo..... its only £145 for the service in total.
I have to agree, splitting hairs and potentially annoying the dealer over £100 isn't worth it imo, get the £100 back by maybe nabbing a new Vantage or DB11 for the day while the car is being serviced, just avoid the coffee afterwards dbs2000 said:
I have to agree, splitting hairs and potentially annoying the dealer over £100 isn't worth it imo, get the £100 back by maybe nabbing a new Vantage or DB11 for the day while the car is being serviced, just avoid the coffee afterwards
It was worth it, they are now offering me free collection and delivery
It's easy and logical to look at parts prices and start trying to salami-slice the breakdown to save a few quid. Customers do it to me all the time, and my response is the same: we not only have overheads to cover, but you're also paying for the risk and the arse-ache and the tooling and the experience and the confidence etc etc etc.
Personally, I'm happy to pay (a bit) more to let a competent grown-up do the work, happy in the knowledge that they are 100x more competent than I am and if something breaks or is a bit weird they know how to fix, and will.
Not only that, they are happy to let me drive round in a loaner while they do the service. At AM Cambridge it used to be Jag E-Paces, now they have Merc GLAs. The logistical ease is, for me, worth a few bob more. Coming from Maserati, my first impressions of AM service prices is that compared to Maserati and Ferrari main dealers they are far more reasonable.
Personally, I'm happy to pay (a bit) more to let a competent grown-up do the work, happy in the knowledge that they are 100x more competent than I am and if something breaks or is a bit weird they know how to fix, and will.
Not only that, they are happy to let me drive round in a loaner while they do the service. At AM Cambridge it used to be Jag E-Paces, now they have Merc GLAs. The logistical ease is, for me, worth a few bob more. Coming from Maserati, my first impressions of AM service prices is that compared to Maserati and Ferrari main dealers they are far more reasonable.
I am retired so have lots of time for this hobby and especially long winters to keep me off the street. Also well planed life yielded a large heated garage space and set of simple hand tools. Oil changes and other basics are complicated at first but yield to repetitive practice. If I anticipate a problem task I consult a Redpants video on Utube.
My Vantage was not designed for ease of service, just the opposite. If I run into an unsolvable
, I call a friend, an independent, lastly a dealer.
Learn the cross over parts and their sources, for fluids as well. Use internet, auto part stores and Redpants as sources. Get your hands dirty, save a boatload of money, make yourself proud and have something to crow about at the next cars n' coffee.
My Vantage was not designed for ease of service, just the opposite. If I run into an unsolvable
, I call a friend, an independent, lastly a dealer.
Learn the cross over parts and their sources, for fluids as well. Use internet, auto part stores and Redpants as sources. Get your hands dirty, save a boatload of money, make yourself proud and have something to crow about at the next cars n' coffee.
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